Hello, my Stamping Friends!
Well, I’m totally bummed that I missed taking part in today’s Creation Station Blog Tour, all because of an update to my blog!! I know, right?! Updates are supposed to be good things…. and honestly, I’m not averse to change; I quite welcome it! This was supposed to be a regular Word Press update – I’ve done many (they’re automatic, all I have to do is press ‘update’ on the screen, and they happen).
However – this new update decided that it would NOT play nicely with my current blog set-up, and it wouldn’t allow me to post! Not a word!! I tried & tried; I searched online for a solution; nada. No luck. Well, thank goodness for the miracle worked Amy Celona, who is my blog host – one email to her (of course, by then it was way too late for me to post) – and TA-DA! – Amy had it fixed in no time.
Amy – you are my hero! This isn’t the first time that Amy has pulled my ‘bacon’ from the fire, and got me back to posting. So here’s a shameless plug for Amy’s amazing service – worth every penny, mind you – if you need a blog host, trouble shooter, all-around great lady – get in touch with Amy Celona; Webs by Amy; www.websbyamy.com You’ll love her!
Anyway – back to the topic I’m supposed to be posting about – my Friday night class, which was called Chicks & Chocolate! This is a favourite class; if I do say so myself, I do put out some yummy treats! This time it was home made chocolate decadence brownies, chocolate zucchini cake, and chocolate dipped strawberries. Yummm!! Oh – did I mention that we made cards, as well?! 🙂
For some reason, we were all a little more ‘punchy’ than normal (and I wasn’t serving wine at this class – that was the class before that!). It started with Amanda opening up an ink pad – and sending the lid flying! Well, that started the first round of huge laughter – but not as much as when it happened a second time – and I just could not get the lid back on! And there was Debbie, asking me ‘but don’t you remember the trick? they showed us the trick!’ and me laughing ‘well, obviously, I don’t!’
I always enjoy getting together with my ladies; it’s more than just me teaching them something; it’s friends getting together and sharing how your week was; what’s the latest news, and friendship.
But again, I digress….we did manage to make some fun & fabulous cards – here they are!
This one is made with one of my favourite stamp sets, called Kinda Eclectic. It’s in the big Annual Catalogue, and the large butterfly stamp in the set coordinates with the Elegant Butterfly Punch! The card base is Crumb Cake, and the images are stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock – a beautiful alternative to Whisper White. The ink colours used are Blackberry Bliss (butterflies and sentiment), Mossy Meadow (leaves; stamped full strength & stamped off), Crumb Cake (dots) and Hello Honey (starburst). I also used strips of the Watercolour Wonder Washi Tape behind the sentiment banner.
This is a nice, simple and quick birthday card, using the Serene Silhouettes stamp set, a card base of Calypso Coral, a panel of Daffodil Delight and a panel of the awesome Park Lane Designer Series Paper. The image was stamped in Old Olive, and the sentiment (from Something to Say) inked in Calypso Coral. A couple of large pearls on the sentiment, and smaller pearls on the flowers, finish it off nicely!
This is another one of my favourite stamp sets (yes, I do have a lot of favourites!) called Choose Happiness. The card base here is Mossy Meadow, overlayed with a panel of Fancy Foil Vellum Paper. The images were all stamped and cut separately, with the exception of the wood-grain look banner, which was cut using the Banners Framelits. I just love the ease of using Stampin’ Up!’s Paper Snips for doing fussy-cutting 🙂 The inks used were Hello Honey for the flower, Memento Black Ink for the leaves then coloured using Pear Pizzaz and Mossy Meadow Markers; Crumb Cake for the wood-look banner, Blackberry Bliss for the bird and the sentiment. A small wood-look button tied with Metallic Baker’s Twine in Gold adds the finishing touch.
Next we moved on to some Seasonal Cards – first up was Hallowe’en! I don’t typically send Hallowe’en cards, but this stamp set, Holiday Home, has stamps for every season, and I just couldn’t resist!
The card base is Pumpkin Pie (surprise,right?!), then a panel of Basic Black under Whisper White cardstock. All of the images, including the sentiment, are included in this stamp set, plus a whole lot more! The pumpkins were stamped in – you guessed it – Pumpkin Pie ink, the tree in Baked Brown Sugar and the stars in Daffodil Delight; everything else was stamped with Memento Black ink and either left as is, or coloured in with our amazing Blendabilities markers. A strip of (retired) Daffodil washi tape runs across the bottom, with images of leaves and bats dancing about the card base.
And on to Christmas! Of course, stars can be used for any occasion, but this time I used the Bright & Beautiful stamp set and one of it’s sentiments for a Christmas card. This is a gorgeous stamp set, that you can purchase the coordinating Stars Framelits Dies, if you’re like me, and like to spend more time stamping, and less time cutting. The card base is Blackberry Bliss, with a panel of Smoky Slate on top. The large star is stamped in Blackberry Bliss on Whisper White cardstock; the smaller star in the centre was stamped with VersaMark and Smoky Slate,and heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. Both were then cut out using the Stars Framelits Dies. The sentiment was stamped directly onto to Smoky Slate panel with VersaMark and Blackberry Bliss inks, and heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. A small star was stamped in Blackberry Bliss directly onto the upper corner of the Smoky Slate panel. A beautiful, and easily duplicated Christmas card!
Finally, this is a whimsical card, with the Polar bear seemingly listening to the Cardinals in the trees! This fabulous set is called White Christmas – and yes, it was one of my ‘I must get this’ sets as soon as I saw the Holiday Catalogue. This set works together perfectly with the Holiday Home set; I’m having so much fun stamping with them!
The card base is Whisper White, then I used a panel of retired Cherry Cobbler DSP, using the 3rd largest Oval Framelit Die to cut out the centre. I used Memento Black Ink to stamp the images (so easy to get them exactly where you want them, with this photopolymer set), and coloured with Soft Sky and Baked Brown Sugar Markers. The cardinals were stamped using Real Red ink. The star in the bottom corner is cut using the Star Framelits Die from Gold Foil Paper, and a small banner cut from Gold Glimmer Paper using the Banner Framelits Die. I add a small twist of the new beautiful Cherry Cobbler1″ Sheer Linen Ribbon between the 2 golds.
So as you can see – we did get lots of stamping done, as well as have lots of fun, and yummy treats! I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did; I can’t wait until our Technique Junquies club coming up near the end of the month, with some of the same ladies.
Until then – I hope I’ve given you a laugh or two, and maybe inspired you to make some of your own cards! I’m always hoping you will share your creations with me, so that I can share them here, on my blog. Just send your picture to me at debsmart@shaw.ca with your name, some details of how you made your project, and your blog address, if you have one.
Remember – if you live in the Lower Mainland area, please sign up to attend my special Creative Craft Escape – click on the ‘Event Registration’ page (at the top of the page) for all the fun details, and how to register. I hope to see you there!
I’ll be back again soon with more sharing – happy stamping!
What a great collection of cards! Thanks for sharing all your creativity and the accompanying narrative too! Definitely inspirational.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cards, Patti, and found some inspiration 🙂 I hope you have lots of fun with your creating, too!